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“Sen. Paul believes that the vast majority of our service members are honorable and upstanding individuals,” said Paul spokesman Moira Bagley said in an email. “In the instance when one is accused of a serious crime, especially one of harassment or assault, the allegation needs to be taken seriously and conflicts of interest should not impact whether a crime is prosecuted properly.”

Paul has been a critic of the Pentagon on other issues, too. The Kentucky Republican has called for an audit of military spending and he waded into defense issues in March with a 13-hour filibuster questioning the danger of drone strikes to U.S. citizens on American soil.

Cruz on Tuesday will also go a step beyond an initial committee vote, pointing to America’s allies to explain his position.

“Several of our strongest allies such as Israel, the United Kingdom, and Germany have made similar reforms to their military justice systems, and seen marked improvement,” Cruz said in the statement. He also commended Gillibrand for her efforts to “modernize” the forces.

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What exactly are they pushing? The US military has one of the most stringent cultures of EEO, COOP, reporting sexual assault, and a myriad of other mandatory training programs. If there are individual cases that aren’t getting investigated,then reference those. Quit tagging it as “military” sexual assault. I don’t recall it being called presidential sexual assault during the Clinton years.

Thanks for the link. Mr. Kristol is turning into quite the grumpy old man:

We’re curious to hear what substantive arguments Paul and Cruz will make on behalf of this proposal. Or is this just media grandstanding, like their last bold intervention in national security policy, when they raised the alarm about the dire threat of drone attacks on Americans sitting in cafes?

We’re curious to hear what substantive arguments Paul and Cruz will make on behalf of this proposal. Or is this just media grandstanding, like their last bold intervention in national security policy, when they raised the alarm about the dire threat of drone attacks on Americans sitting in cafes?

Ladysmith CulchaVulcha on July 16, 2013 at 2:33 PM

But you must understand, Kristol lives in an alternate universe where the IRS and NSA stuff never happened, and all government actions are full of rainbows and unicorns.